Right Attitudes

Ideas for Impact

Sharpening Your Skills

Build, Then Optimize

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Build, Then Optimize Startups often emphasize the importance of optimization, which can lead to significant gains, but only if your business is already functioning well.

Focusing on anything other than garnering interest for your product or service is pointless if no one is genuinely interested. Premature optimization wastes time and resources.

Idea for Impact: Get the basics right, then optimize. Prioritize getting the basics right before becoming fixated on optimization. In fact, avoid targeting incremental improvements when a step change is what you really need.

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Listening is Not Just Waiting to Talk

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Listening is Not Just Waiting to Talk In our fast-paced world, one of the most counterproductive—insidious even—listening habits is the tendency to construct our response while the other person is talking. It’s like mentally hitting the pause button on their words and drafting our own script for the moment they pause.

This habit often arises from a lack of active listening skills. Planning our responses can sometimes feel like our way of actively participating in the conversation. Additionally, societal norms can play a role; in certain contexts, rapid and assertive replies are highly valued, reinforcing this behavior.

But here’s the catch: when we’re pretending to listen while internally rehearsing our response—or even a counterargument,—we’re not truly grasping the speaker’s message. We miss the nuances and subtleties within it. Even worse, we signal to the speaker that we’re not genuinely interested in what they have to say.

To break free from this and other detrimental listening habits, cultivate self-awareness and consciously work on enhancing our listening skills. Rather than crafting a response in parallel, focus on fully comprehending the speaker’s viewpoint.

Idea for Impact: Let the other person complete their thoughts before you chime in. Allowing a brief pause to organize your thoughts. By practicing patience, active engagement, and empathy, you can transform into a more effective and attentive listener. This transformation will not only enhance your communication skills but also deepen your relationships.

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Why Good Founding Stories Sell: Stories That Appeal, Stories That Relate

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It’s the most famous “founding” story ever told. Isaac Newton often told it himself. William Stukeley first published it. Voltaire popularized it.

In 1666, Newton was strolling in a garden in Lincolnshire when he saw an apple drop from a tree. The fruit fell straight to the earth as if tugged by an invisible force. (Subsequent versions of this story had the apple striking Newton on the head.)

That mundane observation seemingly led Newton to conceive the notion of universal gravitation, which explained everything from the falling apple to the moon’s orbit. Whether it was true or not, the apple episode probably motivated Newton. But, indeed, he did not arrive at his theory of gravity at that single moment, as is commonly believed.

Most Origin Stories Make a Good Yarn

Fast-forward three and a half centuries, from England to California. Today, the “Eureka Moment” narrative is a Silicon Valley staple.

Most founding stories would rather you believe that brilliant entrepreneurs came about the outstanding idea for their startups in an almost Moses-like manner. In reality, though, that’s not the real story of how some of our iconic companies began.

When eBay launched, it gained loads of fanfare by proclaiming that Pierre Omidyar and his fiancée built the “Auction Web” to buy and collect Pez candy dispensers on the nascent internet. According to Adam Cohen’s The Perfect Store: Inside eBay (2002,) eBay’s public relations manager Mary Lou Song fabricated that founding story in 1997 to interest the media.

Netflix supposedly stemmed when co-founder Reed Hastings racked up a $40 fine with a Blockbuster store for his overdue copy of the movie Apolo 13. Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph’s That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea (2019) debunks that origin myth. Although Hastings’s $40 fine inspired the process, it wasn’t the single “spark of imagination” that cooked up Netflix.

YouTube supposedly began when founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen could not share videos of a 2005 dinner party in Chen’s San Francisco apartment. Everybody accepted the story until it was refuted by the third co-founder, Jawed Karim (who had been sidelined by Hurley and Chen.) Karim produced a prototype of YouTube inspired by HOTorNOT, a dating site that nudged users to upload photos and others to rate the looks of potential companions. Karim was particularly inspired by the concept of user-generated content versus website owners supplying the content. He set out to make a version of HOTorNOT with video. Chen later admitted that he embellished the dinner party story, which was “probably very strengthened by marketing ideas around creating a story that was very digestible.”

Facebook, first called FaceMash, was also inspired by HOTorNOT. Mark Zuckerberg and his dorm buddies created a website to post pairs of pictures from Harvard’s student community, asking users to rate the “hotter” individual.

Many Good Founding Stories are Just That—They’re Good Stories.

No company is ever founded in a single moment. Ideas evolve after assimilation and experimentation over several months, even years. It’s less interesting to say that things just develop, one idea building upon another. You won’t get as much publicity for rendering a normal-but-boring founding story.

If these mythic creation stories prove anything, it’s that people prefer a good story. People like a storyteller who’s more articulate than one who is accurate. Good stories move. Good stories lead audiences on a journey of the imagination.

Telling a Good Story is a Rehearsed Performance

Human beings are not transformed as much by statistics and facts as we are by stories. In All Marketers are Liars—The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-trust World (2005,) marketing guru Seth Godin says successful marketers don’t discuss features or benefits. They tell stories. Stories that readers want to read. And believe.

If humans were rational, we’d make judgments based on facts and statistics. But we’re not rational; we’re more convinced to act on stories, especially with emotional content. So the ability to tell a story well is a beneficial tool to add to your toolkit.

Idea for Impact: Those who can create and tell entertaining and exciting stories will have a marked advantage over others regarding persuasion. Learn to tell clear, commanding stories that make a good metaphor. Stories that appeal to emotion. Stories that relate. Stories that hold people’s attention. Stories that travel fast.

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The Problem with People Who Don’t Think They Can Change

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One expression I dislike is “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” It’s a defeatist attitude that limits the realm of possibilities. By saying, “That’s just the way I am,” we are closing ourselves off to change and cultivating a stubborn exterior that rejects suggestions to improve. It’s as if we’re saying, “I don’t want to learn anymore. Life is perfect for me as it is, and I refuse to change. The world should bend to my will.”

Many become so comfortable with what works for them that they resist change, even when presented with new information that contradicts their beliefs. These beliefs become intertwined with their identity, and challenging them requires self-examination and a willingness to see the world in a new light. Unfortunately, most people hesitate to do so, as it is an attitudinal rather than intellectual handicap.

In reality, life should transform us. Learning and growing means keeping an open mind and seeking new experiences that challenge our assumptions.

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Why Settle?

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We often believe we deserve so much better, but along the way, we settle. We settle for something not quite right.

It’s a choice we get to make every day. We settle one step at a time—because we don’t take the time to find “the one,” especially, or at least, only, when the stakes are big enough.

Yes, perfectionism is the enemy of ‘done.’ But not all perfectionism is detrimental … only obsessive, maladaptive perfectionism is. Haven’t our perfectionist efforts yielded the most good & satisfaction?

Idea for Impact: Learn to listen to your voice and live life on your own terms. Be very selective when pushing yourself to the max. Don’t settle for less than what you deserve, especially when your effort is wholly justified. Be more or less perfectionistic as required.

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Ethics Lessons From Akira Kurosawa’s ‘High and Low’

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The celebrated Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa is known for crafting movies that grapple with moral dilemmas. In his highly regarded work, High and Low (1962,) a successful self-made millionaire faces a wrenching ethical conundrum: his son has been abducted, and he must give up everything he has worked hard for to secure the ransom. However, he soon discovers that the kidnapper mistakenly took his chauffeur’s son instead. The question now becomes: is the life of the worker’s child worth the same sacrifice as his own? In a powerful scene, the millionaire and the chauffeur lock eyes, and the viewers are left to ponder if all lives are equally valuable.

What makes this movie a standout is its portrayal of the intricacies involved in making difficult moral choices. Our conscience cannot always provide us with the necessary guidance to navigate the complex ethical issues we face in modern society, particularly when competing values and interests are at play. Ethical decisions are about more than just meeting a specific standard, as many dilemmas are so multifaceted that it’s difficult to distinguish good from evil or determine which choice is most worthy of preference.

The key takeaway is that tackling complicated moral problems requires continuous effort and investment in researching and contemplating the proper response. Seeking input from trusted colleagues who can provide a secure space to explore the nuances and implications of difficult decisions, particularly those you might not feel comfortable discussing openly due to societal pressures, is critical.

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How to (Finally!) Stop Procrastinating, Just Do It

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Go to the gym consistently and unfailingly, even if it’s just to walk on the treadmill for ten minutes.

Even if your legs are sore, just go.

Even if you’re not feeling it, just go.

Even if there’s that something else you’d rather be doing, just go.

Just go.

Because once you’re there at the gym, you usually will get into the mood to run or achieve something more substantial.

Just do it.

Compel yourself to do just a bit of what you’re struggling to do.

Just taking action, even if you don’t plan on achieving much, can usually help you get and stay motivated.

Inertia will give way to momentum.

Idea for Impact: The “Just Do It” attitude can help you surmount mental blocks. Folks who actually get things done work at whatever they are interested in, even when they don’t feel like doing it.

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Why You Should Make a Daily Appointment with Your Worries

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Set aside specific 15- to 30-minute appointments on your calendar for focused “Worry Time.”

Make them regular if possible, as in “I’ll worry from 4:00 to 4:30 p.m. every evening.”

If a worry emerges before or after your Worry Time, jot it down and tackle it later.

For the span of your set Worry Time, agonize over whatever is bothering you. Chew on your problems or write them down. Then commit yourself to get back to your routine.

Don’t do this right before bed or first thing in the morning, especially if you tend to wake up with a sense of anxiety over everything that needs to be done.

Ruminating about the past and worrying about the future makes staying in the present moment impossible. It’s mentally and emotionally draining. It interferes with moving forward. Therefore, by using this focused time for worrying, you can get your worries out of the way. Put off any emergent worries until your next scheduled worry session, just as you should ‘do’ emails at set points during the day instead of letting them disrupt your flow.

Limiting your time to worry can also make your Worry Time productive. By having a clear limit to how much time you can spend thinking about an issue, you can push yourself to seek a solution instead of ruminating endlessly.

With some practice, you’ll learn not to let those inevitable anxieties flood your thoughts throughout your day.

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The Dark Side of Selfies

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Selfies are generally acceptable to a certain extent. They provide a means to chronicle oneself and curate the highlights of one’s life, and as humans, we have an innate need to feel acknowledged and seen.

Selfies can be a tool for self-love and expression, allowing individuals to communicate something about themselves and present themselves in a certain way. When taken intentionally, a selfie can give the illusion of control over one’s fleeting identities, which is a natural desire. It’s perfectly fine to create a persona and seek others’ approval, as a healthy self-identity depends on it.

However, when taken too far, the desire to be liked and accepted can quickly become a constant need for validation and status. Self-objectification can cause one to forget that self-identity is primarily based on subjective, biased perceptions of others. Using selfies as the ultimate self-expression can lead to overinflated self-importance and shameless self-promotion.

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Separate the Job of Creating and Improving

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You can’t write and edit, engrave and buff, or create and analyze simultaneously. If you try to do so, the editor will hinder the creator’s progress.

Don’t let the evaluator’s biases and entrenched behaviors get in the way of the maker’s creative process. Keep the niggling editor from creeping up during the initial draft.

Idea for Impact: In the early stages, the creator’s mind should be free from any judgment. Revising your way into a cut above is far more effective than trying to conjure brilliance out of thin air.

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